|
|
|
| NEWS > 07 November 2005 |
Other related articles:
Jamaica: No place for corrupt
ASSISTANT Commissioner Justin Felice, the fifth policeman recruited from overseas to the senior ranks of the constabulary, vowed yesterday to spend his first 12 months on the job raising the 'fear of detection' among corrupt cops.
".If police officers step outside of the law I will investigate those allegations," said Felice, who made inroads as senior director of investigations with the Police Service of Northern Ireland
"My message is clear: unethical or corrupt behaviour is not acceptable and wil... Read more
|
 Article sourced from
|
|
Boston Globe, USA
07 November 2005
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
|
|
Civil rights trial begins for
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --A lawyer for the mother of a black police sergeant shot dead by two white colleagues said the accident may not have happened if Providence police were trained to recognize off-duty officers.
Attorney Barry Scheck said the Providence Police Department required its officers to carry their badges and guns while off-duty, but it never trained recruits on how to prevent friendly fire accidents.
Scheck, part of a team of lawyers who successfully defended O.J. Simpson against murder charges, said the policy was especially dangerous for minority officers like Sgt. Cornel Young Jr.
"You have to talk frankly about the issue of race," he told the jury during his opening statement. "Avoid stereotypes. You can't anticipate what a police officer looks like."
Young, 29, was killed on Jan. 28, 2000, when he ran outside a Providence restaurant to break up a fight in the parking lot. Two uniformed police officers responding to the fight -- Carlos Saraiva and rookie Michael Solitro -- mistook Young for a suspect and shot him dead.
Both Saraiva and Solitro were previously cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
In 2003, a jury decided that Solitro violated Young's civil rights but Saraiva did not. U.S. District Judge Mary Lisi threw out the lawsuit after the verdict, but an appeals court reinstated part of the case this spring.
The current jury must decide whether the police department failed to adequately train Solitro and thereby violated Young's civil rights.
Lawyers for the city said Providence police training exceeds national standards. They alleged that Young did not follow protocol the night he died.
Attorney Michael Colucci said police policy required off-duty officers to react to emergencies threatening life or property. But the policy, he said, allowed the off-duty officer to select the best course of action.
"It may be better just to be a good witness," he said.
Officers were taught to display their badges beside their guns if they pulled their weapons off-duty, Colucci said. Young's badge was found in his back pocket.
"Cornel Young Jr., and we'll never know why, but he didn't follow that protocol," Colucci said.
Providence was one of the nation's last urban forces to maintain the so-called "always armed, always on-duty" policy, Scheck said.
In the coming weeks, the jury will hear videotaped testimony from the head of training at the New York City Police Department, Scheck said. When NYPD officers encounter an armed person, they're taught to shout, "Police, don't move."
Upon hearing that challenge, off-duty officers in New York know to stop and identify themselves, Scheck said.
He said Providence police lacked a similar policy.
"The precious seconds -- when you stop -- that saves lives," Scheck said.
Scheck said former Providence police commissioner Scott Partington will testify that he considered the off-duty policy dangerous and thought it had been eliminated five years before Young died.
Top police commanders interpreted the policy differently, Scheck said. Some believed the policy required off-duty officers to make arrests. Others believed reporting a crime would suffice.
"A policy not followed is worse than no policy at all," Scheck said.
Both sides have conflicting accounts of the shooting.
One patron at the restaurant said Young ran outside the front door carrying his gun and was shot when he turned toward the two police officers.
City officials said Young advanced on the uniformed officers who repeatedly warned him to drop his gun.
"They had no choice at that moment in time other than to consider him an armed threat," Colucci said
|
| |
 EiP Comments:
|
|---|
|
| |
* We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper or periodical. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and we will remove the article. The articles republished on this site are provided for the purposes of research , private study, criticism , review, and the reporting of current events' We have no wish to infringe the copyright of any newspaper , periodical or other works. If you feel that we have done so then please contact us with the details and where necessary we will remove the work concerned.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 |
Ethics in Policing, based in the UK, provide information and advice about the following:
Policing Research | Police News articles | Police Corruption | International Policing | Police Web Sites | Police Forum | Policing Ethics | Police Journals | Police Publications |
|
| |
|
